th her husband.

"May Allah bless you and profit for Himself, excellencies," said the
good Selim. Neenah plainly had advanced her suspicions to the brown
body-servant. Genevra blushed and then her eyes blazed. She gave the
girl a scornful look; Neenah smiled happily, unreservedly in return.

"Allah help us, you should say, if Von Blitz returns," interposed Chase
hastily. "Is the door barred?"

"No, excellency. The bars have sprung, I cannot drop them in place. As
you know, the lock has been blown away. The charge sprung the bolts. We
must go at once."

"Then there is no way to keep them out of the chateau?" cried Genevra
anxiously.

"They can go no farther than this room," explained Selim. "We lock the
double iron doors from the other side--the door through which you came,
most glorious excellency--and they cannot enter the cellars above. This
is the chamber which opens into the underground passage to the coast.
The passage was made for escape from the chateau in case of trouble and
was known to but few. My father was the servant of Sahib Wyckholme, and
I used to live in the chateau. We came to the island when I was a baby.
My father had been with the sahib in Africa. I came to know of this
passage, for my father and my mother were to go with the masters if
there was an attack. Five years ago I was given a place in the company's
office, and I never came up here after my parents died of the plague. We
were--"

"The plague!" cried the Princess.

"It was said to have been the plague," said Selim bitterly. "They died
in great convulsions while spending the night in the Khan. That's the
inn of Aratat, excellencies. The great sahibs sent their stomachs away
to be examined--"

"Never mind, Selim," said Chase. "Tell us about the passage there."

"Once there was a boat--a launch, which lay hidden below the cliffs on
the north coast. The passage led to this boat. It was always ready to
put out to sea. But one night it was destroyed by the great rocks which
fell from the cliffs in an earthquake. When I came here, I at once
thought of the passage. You will see that the doors into the cellar
cannot be opened from this chamber; the locks and bolts are on the other
side. I knew where the keys were hidden. It was easy to unlock the doors
and come into this room. I found that some one had been here before me.
The door to the passage had been forced open from without--cracked by
dynamite. Many of the treasure boxes have been r